Mazel Toy!

My Bar Mitzvah
Blues

Bobby Piraino
summed up his
bar mitzvah
year in song.

Robert Knoll accompanies Bobby Piraino at Bobby's bar
mitzvah party.

My Bar Mitzvah
Mi
BI

Turned 1,3 years of
d,
And have
a story to tell,
Had
Torah service,
Was my
told Idid well.

Bobby Piraino and his electric guitar.
7 i.aveled
Haftorah studies," says his mother Vicki •
CART WALD MAN
a long road,
"He wanted to do anything else but
With years ofhard study,
Special to the Jewish News
study for his bar mitzvah. But with the
Hours of reading- and reciting,
help of wonderful teachers at Temple
he year before a bar mitzvah is a lot
Shared with a good buddy.
Israel
and
the
discipline
of
learning
his
to juggle for any 12-year-old: clas-
new
musical
instrument,
Bobby
gained
sic adolescence, after-school sports,
a special confidence that helped him
Lots of homework and tests,
homework, mitzvah projects,
make it through this tough year. He
&brew twice a week,
friends, Haftorah class and Hebrew tutors, to
even learned to sing, which I never
Studied
name just a few.
judaica,
knew
he
could
do.
nowled
But for Bobby Piraino, a seventh-grader at
To describe Piraino's year-long bar
Abbott Middle School in West Bloomfield,
mitzvah learning experience, "My Bar
embarking on his 13th birthday brought him
Studying
Hebrewen got in the way
Mitzvah Blues" was written by Piraino
Instea
another lesson.
Its
md of playing outdoor
and
his
mother,
with
the
help
of
family
s
Last year, Piraino began learning how to
on Da,
sunny
days.
friend Estelle Seltzer.
y bar mitzvah blues! Dah,
Dah,
Da!
play the electric guitar from music teacher and
Written
in
poetic
verses
to
the
The
Internet,
was
a
godrend
to
me,
blues guitarist Robert Knoll. Piraino, already
tune of a traditional Muddy Waters
A wealth of knowledge, fir m
musically inclined, is first chair viola in
e to see.
blues
song,
it
goes
through
Piraino's
Abbott's concert orchestra.
year
of
tough
Torah
studies,
to
the
From
"There is only so much you can do during this
Is wh a boy to a man
eventual success of the ceremony
busy year," Piraino explains. "So I made the
ere I now stand
and celebration. He sang and per-
choice to give up tennis, my favorite after-school
formed "My Bar Mitzvah Blues"
sport, to begin guitar lessons."
with teacher Robert Knoll at his
Hafiorah is do
With instruction, practice and inspiration from
ne
party
April
24
at
the
_I am no longer blue,
Knoll, Piraino learned the guitar scales, chords
Ana'
tha
Doubletree Hotel in Novi.
; because
and progressions in just over a year. Electric guitar
of you ...
Jamming
the
tune
on
his
new
quickly became his No. 1 love over tennis and the
Fender
Stratocaster
electric
idea for his bar mitzvah theme was born: "A Rock
guitar (an early bar mitzvah pre-
Festival — Bobby's 1999 World Tour —
sent from his parents), Piraino soloed and
Celebrating His 13th Gig!"
sang with Knoll. Li
"Bobby was 'blue' at the beginning of his

T

''

5/7
1999

ues

K